Arizona – the new Rhode Island?

posted at 8:31 pm on July 7, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

According to the Obama administration’s lawsuit against the state of Arizona, their new law requiring police officers to investigate immigration status for those already in some form of detention violates their jurisdiction, which is what the argument of pre-emption means. Barack Obama and Eric Holder want the courts to rule that only the federal writ runs in Arizona on immigration-law enforcement. Apparently, though, the federal writ doesn’t run in Rhode Island, where law enforcement has been doing for years exactly what the Arizona law Obama opposes mandates — without a peep from the DoJ:

“There are police chiefs throughout New England who hide from the issue . . . and I’m not hiding from it,’’ said Colonel Brendan P. Doherty, the towering commander of the Rhode Island State Police. “I would feel that I’m derelict in my duties to look the other way.’’

From Woonsocket to Westerly, the troopers patrolling the nation’s smallest state are reporting all illegal immigrants they encounter, even on routine stops such as speeding, to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.

Well, that’s different from what Arizona is doing because, well, um … Arizona’s racist, or something. In fact, Rhode Island does exactly what Arizona belatedly decided to do, which is to get serious about immigration control and enforcing the law. The only difference is that Rhode Island began doing it before Barack Obama needed a distraction from a hugely unpopular ObamaCare bill and thought a fight over immigration would bolster Democrats in the midterms.

In fact, Rhode Island didn’t bother passing a law, but instead relied on an executive order:

In 2008, Governor Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, issued an executive order mandating immigration checks on all new state workers and ordering State Police to assist federal immigration officials.

Sitting in his office in an old farmhouse off a country highway, Doherty said the State Police had collaborated with federal immigration officials before, but the relationship has become more formal in recent years. In 2007, he said, he trained all state troopers in how to deal with noncitizens because of widespread confusion and because Congress did not resolve the issue of illegal immigration. Troopers learned to notify consulates when noncitizens are arrested, how to recognize different forms of identification, and how to deal with different cultures.

In 2009, Doherty took it a step further and enrolled in the 287(g) program, which designated four troopers as immigration task force agents to assist in investigating drug and human trafficking and other crimes.

They also help regular troopers report illegal immigrants to ICE. Troopers say the issue typically comes up during criminal investigations or when motorists don’t have driver’s licenses, and police need to verify their identities with the center in Vermont.

Heck, an executive order seems even more susceptible to a legal challenge than a law passed by the legislature. Why isn’t the DoJ suing Rhode Island to stop doing what Arizona proposes to do?

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection notes the irony in the attacks by Democrats on Arizona in the context of deep-blue Rhode Island:

This is too rich. Who would have thought that my home state, the state of Sheldon Whitehouse, is “racist” by the definition of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party?

I can’t wait for Whitehouse to give a speech on the floor of the Senate associating the Rhode Island State Police with the “fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups.” After all, if racists oppose illegal immigration, then everyone who opposes illegal immigration must be a racist.

Or perhaps Whitehouse can simply explain how we managed to drop Rhode Island from the United States — or ask whether the Department of Justice and the Obama administration are simply indulging a purely political exercise.

Obviously not enough ACORN volunteers in RI to wise things up there… or are they Community Organizers International now? COMOINTERN! Gotta love those names the left organizations come up with…

Will we soon be down to 56 States? Will RI now feel the writhy-wrath of Holder? Will Elvis be seen at the White House again? And is it true that they want to use a nuclear device to go after a UFO base in the Gulf and are spewing out oil to get a cover story?

Enquiring minds want to know!

And that is getting to be about the most reliable newspaper left in the industry…

Yeah. Georgia instituted strict laws regarding illegals a couple of years ago, and the next year we saw a huge increase in the number of illegals in our neighboring state. They just migrate looking for benefits and more time.

You know, everyday this administration is caught with its diapers down, full butt on display. It’s so messy and embarrassing, isn’t it?

Is Obama the Rhode Island Chicken?Here…
Important to point out a few things.
Notice the red on the head, a symbol of communism always on his mind.
Multi colored feathers, a sure sign of him not knowing really who he is, confused.
A light brown bill, always in front, always a bill, always pecking away at our feed with his bills.
The red wattle, always moving back and forth, never in one place, always changing.
And of course, yellow legs & feet, always afraid to take a stand, always asking for forgiveness from our enemies.
Truly this chicken represents Obama perfectly…

Since we clearly can’t count on the Federal government to enforce our immigration laws, we need to make sure we elect people who will enforce these laws at the State and Local levels!

Please ask every single candidate in your area what they plan to do about ILLEGAL immigration if they are elected.

And then campaign and vote for the candidates with the strongest plans for solving the ILLEGAL immigration problem.

wren on July 7, 2010 at 9:19 PM

I did just this with one of the 5 Michigan Republican candidates for Governor. Rick Snyder is the former CEO of Gateway computer or something. He is spending his personal fortune on running for governor in MI. His ads are positioning him as the job oriented, results oriented “nerd” outsider who is the only one qualified to run Michigan.

So I wanted to believe his ads, I went to his website. I read his top issues. NOWHERE does he address the immigration issue, let alone ILLEGAL immigration and securing our borders (this was several weeks ago). So I emailed him and asked him about his position. His rep emailed me back saying that Rick didn’t have a position on that right now.

HUH????????!!!!!!!!!!!????????????

I wrote back and told that campaign that EVERYONE has a position on this issue, we need LEADERS who take a stand on the side of US Citizens in office, not squishy, spineless wimps who want to duck the issue and pretend there is no problem. He lost my primary vote.

DC really is a swamp, no really, it is. Ask anyone who has tolerated the insane humidity in the summer. Prior to its selection as the Capital, probably as no one would mind giving up the worthess land(some things don’t change, now its just the land of the worthless), it was indeed a swamp. Nancy suggested draining it, a farcical piece of kabuki, I say to hell with that flood the joint, let nature reclaim it and start all over with anew cast of carachters.

Eh, I’m not that emotionally involved. The only cases I’ve been able to find on state/federal field preemption involved the Volstead Act. I’m actually more eager to see how this shakes out on the merits.

Hmmm, will this be the trial of the century? The Arizonans crafted their law very carefully so that it would stand up in court. We have seen that other states also have this law. This is shaping up to make Øbama look like a bigger fool than he already does. When states realize that the feds can’t kick them around, it is going to be epic, a tenth amendment free-for-all.

Representatives can sue the president for not doing his job, it’s called impeachment. If the states wanted to instruct their reps to do that, they could The fact that there is no political will for it doesn’t mean the process isn’t there to do it.

States could try to sue the federal government for the cash to protect their border – that would be an interesting suit. Arguing that part of the taxes given to the federal govt are to secure the border and thus the state has the right to withhold or be reimbursed for related expenses.

Good show Rhode Island. Going to the legislative pages of Rhode Island I see clearly that they were following the rules for checking all new employees as prescribed by the TSA rules for performing background checks, and they are simple. If a persons seeking employment must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. if not no badge to allow them to get to work.

Arizona should counter-sue for a writ of mandamus to Obama in his official capacity, Nappy Janny in her official capacity, Holder in his official capacity and every implicated agency to require them to do their duty to enforce immigration law and secure the border. Dumbazz DOJ so kindly waived sovereign immunity on the issue by filing their suit, might as well take the opportunity.